


October Seventh

by witnessmypride



Category: The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Genre: Angst, F/M, and yet it comes to this, i dont even like angst WHY DO I WRITE SO DAMN MUCH OF IT, it was for school i swear it was supposed to be a damn timeline, oh god why do i do this to myself, rudy is jesse owens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 19:52:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9458027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witnessmypride/pseuds/witnessmypride
Summary: The sky has always watched over Rudy Steiner. It has always shouted when it needed too and he has always heard it. But it was not enough, it will never be enough, and now all that is left is Liesel, with her painful tears and her useless words and her dangerous, empty brown eyes.





	

It is October 7, 1943. 

The sirens didn’t ring soon enough, morning didn’t come quickly enough, and mankind is a monster.

It is October 7, 1943, and Himmel Street lies in a charred mess of smoke and ash and murder. Blood runs in rivulets through the cracked streets and death clogs the air.

Open your mouth. Inhale. Breathe in the last breaths of dead souls. Breathe in the massacre of children.

…

 

When Rudy Steiner was seven-years-old, he painted himself black and sprinted around a field at midnight, faster than any man alive. He was  _ jesse owens jesse owens jesse owens _ , American, black, and the fastest man alive. The moon was his coach, the stars his audience, and they all chanted Rudy’s name, over and over and over as charcoal-smeared legs pounded the muddy earth. 

It was midnight, 1936, Germany, and the entire sky shouted  _ jesse owens jesse owens jesse owens. _

It was midnight and it was absolutely silent and Rudy heard the sound of the sky shouting his name.

 

… 

 

Sirens screech into the cold morning air but it is too late, too late, much too late.

It is dawn, 1943, Germany, and the entire sky shouts  _ wake up jesse owens wake up wake up wake up _ .

 

…

 

When Rudy Steiner was ten-years-old, he met a skinny blonde girl with Jewish eyes, brown eyes, dangerous eyes to have in a time like this.

Allow me to paint you a picture of a German spring afternoon, of Liesel Meminger and Rudy Steiner playing soccer on a muddy field, sunshine dancing on their faces, wind carrying their words. Imagine the sound of childish laughter skipping through the streets, of light feet hitting the earth, of a battered soccer ball soaring into a beautiful goal between Tommy Muller’s twitching knees.

Rudy Steiner was nine-years-old and it was a German spring and that was the day he met Liesel Meminger,  _ saumensch  _ of Himmel Street.

They walked to school everyday together, Rudy and Liesel, Liesel and Rudy,  _ saumensch  _ and  _ saukerl _ ,  _ saukerl  _ and  _ saumensch. _

 

…

 

Tears splatter on pavement and a burning hot book hits the ground and the book thief  _ howls _ .

 

…

 

1940 was a year of growling stomachs and drawn faces, of  _ this is all we have for dinner  _ and unspoken, pained  _ i’m still hungry _ ’s after dinner.

In the span of four months, Rudy Steiner and Liesel Meminger became thieves. 

Months later, he still remembers the hot July evening when he and Liesel first stole apples from from a farm alongside Arthur Berg and his unruly gang. He still remembers sitting beside the riverbank and stuffing his face with apples, Liesel being no different, the hunger in his stomach finally quenched.

He remembers the icy October day that brought Otto Sturm’s demise. He remembers pouring water on the sidewalk as the boy turned the corner, he remembers Otto sprawling off of his bicycle, leaving his basket of food (that was supposed to go to rich priests who didn’t need it anyway) right by Rudy, he remembers the twinkle in Liesel’s eyes and the rosy pink of her frozen cheeks.

1940 was a year of thievery but don’t worry, dear reader, for Rudy Steiner will not die a criminal.

 

…

 

The men from the LSE crowd the girl from all sides, trying to be calming, trying to be supportive, trying to get their job done, because here is a girl whose soul is bleeding and here is her father, a man who used to be one of their own but now lies lifeless on the ground.

The men from the LSE try very hard to forget the shouting sky and the bleeding girl because LSE stands for  _ Leichen Sammler Einheit  _ and that means Dead Body Collectors.

Not helpers, not therapists, not stand-in-fathers for bleeding girls.

Dead Body Collectors.

Hans Hubermann, who is now dead at their feet, would have understood that very, very well.

 

…

 

Broken ribs.

It was April 1942 and the Christmas of 1941 had been bleak and small and so Rudy, now thirteen, considered his broken ribs, kindly gifted to him by Franz Deutscher, as his very own Christmas present.

“I’ll get him back,” the lemon-haired boy vowed. And get him back he did.

It was August 1942 and the Hitler Youth carnival rolled around. There were races, fantastic, wonderful, mandatory races. When Rudy stepped up to the starting line, he realized he didn’t need charcoal. When he flew over the finish line, beating every other boy who raced him, the sky shouted his name. The sun was his coach, the clouds his audience, and on the warm, sticky afternoon of August 21, 1942, the whole sky shouted  _ jesse owens, jesse owens, welcome back jesse owens. _

Rudy heard it loud and clear.

 

…

 

Her legs tremble and she wants to run. She wants to run straight off a cliff just like all the other Jews that the Fuhrer seems to love and she wants to be carried away in the sweet arms of death, just like Mama and Papa.

Rosa and Hans.

But she can’t run. She can’t run anywhere because there is death and there is destruction and the ash in the sky whispers  _ stay, saumensch. _

The ash in the sky is not Mama and Liesel’s throat closes up.

 

…

 

It had been five months since Rudy had vowed to get revenge on Franz Deutscher and one month since he had flown across the finish line as Jesse Owens. It was September 20, 1942, and it was the day the coat men came to take Rudy away.

He was intelligent, athletic, and German. He was perfect for their school, a school for a new race of Germans, a race of superhuman strength and mind and skill. 

“No,” is what Barbara Steiner, that brave, stubborn woman said.

“No,” is what Alex Steiner, that protective, bold man said.

Stupid is what they were. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

September 20, 1942, is the day the coat men left.

November 9, 1942 is the day the coat men returned. It was not for Rudy. It was for Alex.

When the Fuhrer wants to take your child, you are supposed to say yes. Not  _ no, _ yes. Not  _ he’s my only son _ , yes. Not  _ please, don’t take him away from me,  _ yes.

His father was gone and Rudy felt numb. He felt brave and stubborn and protective and bold and  _ numb _ .

“I WANT TO KILL THE FUHRER,” is what he roared at the sky. “DO YOU HEAR THAT? I WANT TO KILL THE FUHRER!”

The sky did not shout back. This was not Jesse Owens. This was a stupid, young, naive, angry,  _ numb  _ boy.

And he had no place on the finish line.

 

…

 

“I hate you, Hitler,” the bleeding girl screams at the sky. “I HATE YOU!” 

And that is dangerous talk in a dangerous place in a dangerous time, screamed by a girl with dangerous eyes. The LSE don’t know what to do because they are experts with dead bodies, not living ones. They do not know if they hate the Fuhrer, but they do know he is not their hero, no longer an idol.

Grown men who make young girls cry are not heroes. They are cowards, hiding behind grand armies and the strong shield of adulthood.

 

…

 

Rudy was strong. Rudy was tired. Rudy was going to follow in the footsteps of one Hans Hubermann and give bread to the jews. No, he would be a thief no longer. This was Nazi Germany, this was a war zone, this was Hell on Earth, and Rudy would be a giver, not a stealer.

 

…

 

Stomachs growl. The stomachs of the LSE officers. The stomach of the miracle girl, the only one left alive.

She keeps turning from side to side as if looking for someone.

“Saukerl,” she calls. “Where are you?”

 

…

 

December 24, 1942 is not important. It is not important because Liesel did  _ not  _ give Rudy a Christmas present in the form of a suit, it is  _ not  _ important that they almost kissed in his father’s empty mannequin store, and it is  _ not  _ important that she really, really should have kissed him.

Fact: All of this was important, and the Christmas Eve of 1942 would keep Liesel awake for many nights. At least it wasn’t the nightmare that was October 7, 1943. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

 

…

 

“I should have kissed him,” Liesel whispers. “I should have kissed that stupid  _ saukerl _ , that ridiculous Jesse Owens, that charcoal covered, lemon-haired  _ idiot _ , oh God where is he.”

Do not take the Lord’s name in vain is forgotten in the ash-choked air of the freezing sunrise. Liesel does not take her words back and the LSE officers do not tell her to.

 

…

 

March 10, 1943 was a jarring day for all. 

It followed two days of hiding in a basement, pardon me,  _ air-raid shelter,  _ as bombs shattered Munich outside. March 10, 1943 was the day Rudy discovered a plane. Not a model plane, but a real, actual, honest to God plane with smoke and fire curling up from it because oh look, the pilot had crashed.

Speaking of the pilot, he was was alive, but only barely, holding onto life by hardly more than a thread.

Rudy doesn’t know why he is holding his little sister’s teddy bear but he is and this ball of cotton and fake fur is all he has to offer this man, this brave, stupid man, so idiotic to join the horror that is war.

The man tries to say something but it is garbled by the sound of his own blood choking him. Terrified, Rudy feels bile rising in his throat.

“ _ Thank you _ ,” is what he thinks the man says but he can’t be sure. He isn’t sure of anything, not in this glorified playground with its deadly game of hide-and-seek.

 

…

 

“Do you have anything?” 

One of the officers attempts to distract the girl from the twisted nightmare unfolding all around her. 

She looks up at him, her eyes empty, her mind not able to understand the meaning of  _ having something _ , not now, not after everything that’s ever mattered to her just went up in flames and bombs and Hitler.

“No,” she whispers. “I have nothing.”

Fresh tears fall upon the blood-soaked ground.

“I’m sorry,” is what the LSE officer wants to say. But his throat closes up and the words choke up and stop because this scene, this awful, terrible, ghastly scene, is something he has had to see too often. Something he tries so hard to forget.

He is stupid too. Foolish for believing that you can forget blood and tears and the sound of love screaming.

The sound of hearts breaking.

 

…

 

August 5, 1943 is the day Rudy Steiner learns something new. Liesel is not just strange and Rosa Hubermann does not yell at her to come into their house for no reason.

There was a Jew in Liesel’s basement, a Jew, a real live Jew.

But he is gone and Rudy can see the emptiness in Liesel’s face. He recognizes it and so he tries to help it, comfort it. He does not try to dispel it, because Rudy may be hardly over the tender age of fourteen, but he knows what that emptiness is. He sees it staring back at him everyday in the mirror.

Rudy knows there is no getting rid of that emptiness.

 

…

 

It is midnight, and the bombs come. It is midnight and the bombs fall. It is midnight and the sky screams.

_ Wake up Jesse Owens, wake up, wake up, wake up. _

It is morning, and Jesse Owens did not wake up. He did not wake up because this is Rudy Steiner, and Rudy Steiner is dead. He did not hear the sky, and he is dead. He did not hear the bombs, and he is dead.

Himmel Street did not know and so it is dead. 

 

…

 

And now, dear reader, it is time. It is time to come back to October 7, 1943. 

Let me paint you a picture of a red sky and a red ground. Perhaps the sky was not red. Perhaps the ground was grey, not crimson. But Rudy is dead, yes, that’s right, dead on the ground, the smell of bombs still running through his veins.

And all Liesel can see is red. 

Tears splash onto Rudy’s face, salty tear tracks making their way down his grim-covered face.

Liesel kisses him. She kisses Rudy Steiner. She screams at the sky.

And for the first time, the sky cries. Not in rain. But in ash. There is no rainbow at the end of the rainstorm.

There is only pain.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> *throws hands up*
> 
> Not gonna lie this was for a school project and damn it's at like 2 k words what even is this. Fingers crossed that I get an A. Also! Comment! Kudos! Your support means a helluva lot! Love you guys <3


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